Shonda Rhimes began working with Disney-owned ABC when she launched “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2005.
(Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
Shondaland.com sees Shonda Rhimes subverting industry norms once again.
Described as a platform that is “not a lifestyle site,” this is the next evolution of the brand that brought us the iconic TGIT lineup.
“Because my idea wasn’t to bring all of you amazing, thoughtful, curious, interesting people together, gather you around a digital campfire, and feed you a lifestyle,” she wrote in a column about the Hearst Magazines Digital Media partnership Monday, Sept. 18. “So that’s not what we do here. No gossip, no useless beauty tips, no ways to make your butt higher or your thighs thinner, no advice on how to make your boyfriend propose. No terrifying health stories that scare the crap out of you and make you think you are gonna die tomorrow. No fear.”
The website will churn out videos, essays, interviews and inspirational articles meant to “give you life,” as Rhimes put it in a website clip. Variety reported the content on Shondaland.com will be shared across Hearst’s other online publications, including Cosmopolitan, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. Actress Lena Dunham has a similar setup with her feminist website, Lenny Letter.
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“We have smart and funny and very relatable stories in all the essential categories you’d imagine: work, love, family, politics, activism, money, culture,” Rhimes wrote of the site’s content. “And in essential categories you maybe didn’t imagine: what it’s like to have a body and care for it, how to own the hot mess of crap that is you and your mistakes, how to rise above, how to be a boss, how to be an active person in this world when all you want to do is lie in bed and shove things in your face.”
The launch comes after Rhimes is switching up other things in Shondaland, which is the name of her production company. After six seasons, the final season of “Scandal” will premiere Thursday, Oct. 5, and Rhimes is gearing up to take the Shondaland to Netflix.
Echoing her emphasis on being able to tell stories with her Netflix deal, Rhimes told Adweek Shondaland.com is “all about cultivating quality stories, not trending topics. This is about real people with real lives.”
